WATCH Replay: Kavanaugh-Ford Senate hearing

At PredictIt, Kavanaugh's odds of being confirmed dropped from 55% to 36%. "We're still talking through those issues and I'm optimistic we'll get to confirmation", said Cornyn.

Kavanaugh was due to testify later in the day. "My family and my name have been totally and permanently destroyed", he said.

During the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing for Christine Blasey Ford, one moment has quickly gone viral within the first hour of the hearing: Ford's recollection of Brett Kavanaugh and Mark Judge laughing at her while Kavanaugh allegedly assaulted her.

"I am here today not because I want to be", the 51-year-old Blasey Ford told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee in a charged hearing room.

Both Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who has accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were both high school students in Bethesda, and Kavanaugh himself are testifying before the Senate.

Now there are last-minute accusations being made that include "crazy stuff" such as gangs, illegitimate children, fights and other "nonsense", reportedly "breathlessly and often uncritically by the media", he said. The Senate's constitutional role of advice and consent has fallen by the wayside, he said, having been replaced with "search and destroy". "I am terrified. I am here because I believe it is my civic duty to tell you what happened to me while Brett Kavanaugh and I were in high school".

Mitchell, meanwhile, questioned Ford about the night of her alleged assault and its aftermath, along with other other matters - including the fear of flying, which she said made her reluctant to travel to Washington, D.C., to testify.

"Absolutely", Ford said, later adding, "100 percent".

She was 15 at the time of the alleged incident, while Kavanaugh was 17.

Before she began, committee chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa defended the Republicans' handling of the confirmation proceedings so far.

With her voice breaking at times, Ford detailed her allegations. When she went upstairs to use a bathroom, she was pushed from behind into a bedroom. It is a job interview for Judge Kavanaugh.

But the laughter, and the identity of her attacker, Ford said, remained crystal clear. Kavanaugh also covered her mouth when she tried to scream, she said. "It was hard for me to breathe, and I thought that Brett was accidentally going to kill me".

You can watch her interact with Democrat senators as well as the "female assistant" (as Mitch McConnell put it) over here on this CSPAN page that CSPAN won't let me embed for some reason. She ran into the bathroom and locked the door.

But when Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement earlier this year and Kavanaugh - respected by many as an appellate court judge - was mentioned as the potential replacement, Blasey Ford grew nervous.

He also criticized the committee's top-ranking Democrat, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., that she has suffered post traumatic stress disorder-type symptoms since the assault that included anxiety and claustrophobia. "I know it's hard", she said.

Under questioning by Sen.

When Sen. Patrick Leahy asked her what she most clearly remembered about the assault, Ford said,"Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter, the uproarious laughter between the two, and their having fun at my expense".

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